View previous stories
	Indigenous Peoples sidelined in global climate fight, UN warns by UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues   Apr. 2025   As the planet heats up and the push to decarbonise gathers pace, Indigenous Peoples – long among the world’s most effective environmental stewards – are once again being left behind, a new UN report reveals.   The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples exposes a stark imbalance: while Indigenous Peoples make up just six per cent of the global population, they safeguard 80 per cent of the planet’s remaining biodiversity – yet receive less than one per cent of international climate funding.   The report offers a sobering assessment of climate action that is not only lacking in urgency, but in fairness. From green energy projects imposed without consent to policy decisions made in rooms where Indigenous voices are absent, these communities are too often excluded from climate solutions, displaced by them, and denied the resources to lead the way.   “Although we are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, Indigenous Peoples are not victims,” writes Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in the report’s foreword.   “We are custodians of the natural world who are committed to maintaining the natural equilibrium of the planet for the generations to come.”   The publication, overseen by the UN, brings together contributions from Indigenous leaders, researchers and the World Health Organization (WHO), combining case studies, data and lived experience from seven distinct regions of the world.   The report calls for a seismic shift in how Indigenous knowledge is understood and respected – reframing it not as “traditional” or folkloric, but as scientific and technical knowledge.   Indigenous knowledge systems, authors argue, are “time-tested, method-driven” and built on direct relationships with ecosystems that have sustained life for millennia.   For example, in Peru, a Quechua community in Ayacucho has revived water sowing and harvesting practices to adapt to shrinking glaciers and drought. These methods, part of ancestral stewardship of hydrological cycles, are now being shared across borders with Costa Rican farmers as a model of South-South climate cooperation.   In Somalia, oral traditions serve as ecological law. The report cites cultural norms such as prohibitions on cutting certain trees (gurmo go’an) as evidence of environmental governance embedded in generational wisdom – passed through proverbs, stories, and taboos rather than policy papers.   Meanwhile, the Comcaac people of Mexico encode ecological and maritime knowledge in their language. Names like Moosni Oofia (where green turtles gather) and Tosni Iti Ihiiquet (where pelicans hatch) act as living data points – “vital to their survival,” the report emphasises.   Green solutions without consultation   The report also looks at how even as the world embraces a renewable energy future, many Indigenous Peoples are finding themselves on the frontlines not as climate partners, but as collateral damage from some of the solutions.   “So-called green solutions often pose as much of a threat to Indigenous Peoples as the climate crisis itself,” writes Ms. Ibrahim. From biofuel expansion, carbon offsetting schemes, and mineral extraction for clean energy technologies, the new economy is often being built on old injustices.   For example, in Africa, the report draws attention to how demand for minerals linked to the green energy transition — including lithium and cobalt — has led to extractive activities that proceed without free, prior and informed consent. These projects often result in environmental degradation and displacement, echoing colonial patterns of land exploitation.   In several countries across the Americas, carbon offset projects tied to forest conservation have also been implemented without consultation – often on Indigenous lands – resulting in environmental degradation and exclusion from financial benefits.   Throughout, the report warns that if climate actions continue to be designed and implemented without Indigenous Peoples at the centre, they risk replicating the extractive and exclusionary systems that fuelled the crisis in the first place.   Climate change is a health crisis   The report also includes a chapter commissioned by WHO that details how climate-related health impacts intersect with the social, cultural, and spiritual lives of Indigenous communities.   In the Arctic, changes in temperature, wildlife migration, and weather patterns are disrupting traditional practices like hunting and harvesting. These disruptions are causing stress and threatening food security.   Indigenous women are particularly affected by the intersection of climate change and health. In East Africa, for example, women are more vulnerable to neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiases.   In the Amazon, climate-induced biodiversity loss has reduced access to traditional foods and medicinal plants, contributing to nutritional deficiencies among pregnant and nursing women, as well as broader community health vulnerabilities.   Despite these challenges, the report emphasises resilience. Communities are implementing locally rooted adaptation strategies, often led by women and elders. These include restoring traditional diets, strengthening intergenerational knowledge sharing, and adapting harvesting calendars to new ecological rhythms.   Excluded from the table and the funds   Although Indigenous Peoples are increasingly acknowledged in global environmental frameworks, the report reveals that their role in shaping and implementing climate policy remains severely limited — both in terms of funding and governance.   Indigenous communities continue to face structural barriers that prevent them from accessing international climate finance. While significant resources flow through climate initiatives worldwide, less than 1 per cent reaches Indigenous Peoples directly.   The report calls for a fundamental shift: not just to increase funding, but to change who controls it. Among its key recommendations are the creation of Indigenous-led financial mechanisms, formal recognition of Indigenous governance systems, and the protection of data sovereignty – ensuring communities control how knowledge about their lands and livelihoods is collected and used.   Unless these systems are transformed, the report warns, climate action risks reproducing the same patterns of exclusion and dispossession that have long undermined both Indigenous rights and global environmental goals.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162601 http://social.desa.un.org/publications/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-volume-vi-climate-crisis http://social.desa.un.org/issues/indigenous-peoples/state-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples-sowip http://iwgia.org/en/news/5615-iwgia-fears-alarming-impact-usa-cuts-global-human-rights-protections-indigenous-peoples-rights.html http://iwgia.org/en/resources/indigenous-world.html Visit the related web page
	Failure to consult Indigenous Peoples on future pandemics will further harm children’s education by Amnesty International   Feb. 2025   The failure of governments around the world to consult Indigenous Peoples on Covid-19 school closures and other emergency pandemic responses violated their rights, as children continue to feel the effects five years after the first global lockdown, Amnesty International said in a new report today.   Indigenous leaders interviewed by Amnesty International for its report What If Indigenous Consent Is Not Respected?, testified to sharp and sustained increases in post-pandemic absenteeism and school dropout rates, of more than 80 per cent in some cases, among Indigenous children in more than 10 countries. Indigenous leaders and activists also voiced concerns that the often discriminatory, desultory or non-existent response by authorities to the educational needs of Indigenous children during the pandemic worsened long-standing inequities faced by Indigenous communities – with Indigenous girls and children with disabilities particularly disadvantaged. Going forward, the organization is calling for Indigenous Peoples to be consulted during future pandemics.   “The Indigenous leaders and activists we spoke to felt completely ignored by governments during the pandemic, which had an enduring and damaging impact on their rights and prospects,” said Chris Chapman, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Indigenous Rights.   “They said that remote learning solutions were often unavailable to Indigenous children. Those in rural areas, where Indigenous communities often lacked devices, internet connections, electricity and the technological knowledge or capacity to participate in virtual classes or remote learning, were worst affected.”   When lower-tech solutions such as printed materials were distributed to other groups, Indigenous communities in several different countries said they were passed over, ignored, or asked to pay for them.   Indigenous campaigner Sylvia Kokunda said: “For the most part these materials were distributed by the local government, since it can be easier for the village chairperson to identify the people in this community. However, local officials would not give the materials to these Batwa people, they would give only to their people.”   Radio or television-based educational broadcasting during the pandemic was often unavailable in Indigenous languages. An Ogiek activist said that although Sogoot FM 97.1, an Ogiek language radio station, was used to reach the community to inform them about Covid-19 and its impacts, it was not used for school coursework.   The report is based on data and more than 80 interviews or collected responses that Amnesty International gathered to explore how Indigenous students around the world were impacted by pandemic-related school closures, including in Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Russia, Taiwan and Uganda.   There are 476 million Indigenous people worldwide in more than 90 countries, belonging to 5,000 different Indigenous groups and speaking more than 4,000 languages.   Technology, discrimination and dropout rates   Where Indigenous families had limited access to technology for remote learning during the pandemic, boys were often prioritized.   According to Indigenous women activists from Nepal,“If some families have a mobile, then only one or two will use it. And if there are more children in the house, one has to sacrifice their education. When it comes to the sacrifice, the girls are sacrificed more.”   Even if Indigenous students had devices capable of being used for remote learning, their families were sometimes unable to afford sufficient data. In addition, remote teaching was rarely provided in Indigenous languages.   Children with learning difficulties or disabilities which required specialist teaching, for instance through use of sign language or braille, were often excluded, including among Indigenous communities.   Interviewees in many states said there was often little or no government monitoring, or consideration of the effectiveness of alternative learning initiatives for Indigenous communities. Information on how to access education when schools closed – and they stayed shut for more than 18 months in some countries – was rarely provided in Indigenous languages.   Students with little or no access to education during the pandemic often worked instead, and never returned to schools when they reopened. Those who did return when schools reopened, often found that they had fallen behind their classmates. If they were unwilling to retake a year, or could not be supported financially, they too dropped out.   In Kenya, the majority of dropouts of Ogiek students were girls, especially girls who got pregnant during Covid-19 or were subjected to early marriage. However, it affected boys too. An Indigenous activist from Kenya said: “Boys between the ages of 12 and 18 who had begun working in jobs such as motorcycle taxi drivers or farm workers to earn money for themselves and their families also dropped out.”   Some schools across many states never reopened, further reducing access to education for Indigenous children, Indigenous activists reported.   Asked to reply to Amnesty’s findings, the Mexican government stated that it responded to the “unprecedented challenge of Covid-19″ by working with Indigenous schools and teachers to roll out a set of measures including distributing materials in five Indigenous languages, sometimes in printed formats where access to internet or devices was restricted, developing new digital educational materials, and capacity-building for schools and parents to use digital platforms.   Recommendations   “Significantly more resources are now required to safeguard, restore and improve the educational opportunities and rights of Indigenous communities,” Chris Chapman said.   “States must work with Indigenous communities to immediately restore and enhance the right to education for all Indigenous children including a focus on re-enrolling Indigenous girls, and Indigenous students with disabilities.”   Alongside the report, Amnesty International has shared a guide for researchers who wish to investigate the extent to which the human right to participate effectively in decision-making has been violated, especially when it comes to Indigenous communities.   “Governments must consult with Indigenous Peoples on Covid-19 response measures and other pandemic and emergency response measures, otherwise they risk violating their right to consultation, and their right to give or withhold their consent to decisions affecting them. Our study highlights the risks of failing to take into account the realities, cultures and rights of Indigenous Peoples,” said Chris Chapman.   “While our report sets out the devastating impact of this lack of inclusion, it’s hoped that Amnesty’s guide will ensure Indigenous people are included in discussions that affect them in the future. Every child has the right to free, high-quality primary education. States must therefore ensure that no child is left behind.”   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/02/global-failure-to-consult-indigenous-peoples-on-future-pandemics-will-further-harm-childrens-education/
	View more stories